Five runs came in early for the Mets last night. But five losses came later.

The Mets’ skid has hit five again, as they flushed an early four-run lead at Shea Stadium by allowing the Diamondbacks to score the night’s final eight runs. The Mets went down, 9-5, tying their longest losing streak of the season.

To avoid a sixth straight setback, they have to beat 11-game winner Brandon Webb tonight.

“This is obviously a trying time for us,” David Wright said. “We’ve got to get through it, keep our heads up and bring some positivity. I think there’s guys hanging their heads and we’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve got 99 games left. We have plenty of time to turn this thing around. We just have to do it one game at a time.

“You hear the booing. You hear the chants that get going. You read the papers. You put on the radio and again, we’re not winning. So that’s expected. But we as a unit, we can’t succumb to that. We can’t allow that to get to us, get in our heads. And I’m not saying that we’re doing that. We’ve just got to stick together. It’s a trying time. It’s a time where it’s a test.”

The only smidgen of good news was the first-place Phillies losing, which kept the Mets’ deficit at 7½ games. Keep in mind the Nationals won, meaning the Mets are now just 5½ games ahead of cellar-dwelling Washington, so they are closer to last than first.

Before the game, Willie Randolph talked about how the Mets have “got to win games,” though he dismissed the idea he felt personal pressure. Asked after the game if Randolph and the coaches were safe, Omar Minaya said they were.

“Nothing has changed from what we spoke about two weeks ago,” Minaya said.

Nothing changed last night as far as stopping the losing streak. The Mets were up 5-1 after two innings, but Arizona put up two in the fifth off John Maine and two more in the sixth off Claudio Vargas to tie it. The game was delayed by rain for 61 minutes before the seventh. In the eighth, Joe Smith served up Chris Snyder’s solo blast, the first homer Smith has given up this season.

Then in the ninth, Duaner Sanchez was rocked for two more homers, ending any comeback hopes. When pitching coach Rick Peterson came out of the dugout in the ninth, he heard boos. There were more boos when Randolph came out to pull Sanchez.

The Mets fialed to produce a run after the second inning, going a combined 0-for-12 with men on base during that time.

Moises Alou’s two-run single and Wright’s two-run homer helped forge a 5-1 lead for Maine. In his fifth and final inning (he threw 101 pitches), Maine served up Orlando Hudson’s two-run shot to cut the lead to 5-3.